Chapter Fifty-three

Crystal of Nightmares

Kira bent down to retie her bootlace, and found herself staring at some of the coolest boots she'd ever seen—pointy-toed black knee-high spiked-heel lace-ups. She looked up to check out the rest of the outfit—black flowing skirt, purple peasant blouse with long flowing sleeves. The person wearing the extremely cool boots turned out to be an older woman, close to forty-five, though her hair was still long, thick and black, tucked back behind her ears to keep it from getting tangled in her giant silver hoop earrings. Kira regarded her thoughtfully as she tied her shoe. The woman reminded her of a gypsy.

Kira stood up and started to go catch up with the group, but she stopped dead in her tracks as she caught sight of the sign hanging on the card table: "Elena Luna, renowned psychic, specializing in tarot cards, runes, palmistry, and dream interpretation."

Dream interpretation. Her dream this morning about Conner… no way did it mean she had feelings for Conner. Because she didn't. He was Conner. …But what did it mean?

"Something wrong, Kira?" Adam asked, seeing her hesitate. He automatically turned to check on Trent's whereabouts as he did so. Thankfully, Rocky had taken it upon himself to get Trent to like him better; Trent, Conner and Ethan were chatting amiably with Rocky, laughing at his jokes as the rest of the group headed towards the Tilt-a-Whirl. Adam smiled, knowing Trent would warm up to them eventually, despite their initial encounter. (Trent wasn't the only Ranger to get jealous when other Rangers got friendly with his girlfriend. Reds were particularly bad about it—while they trusted their own teammates, it usually took a while for them to get used to a new team chatting up their girlfriends. Andros had been especially bad about it, because Ashley was very independent and Andros was not just her boyfriend but somewhat unclear about Earth customs.)

Kira didn't respond, staring down at the sign in front of the fortune teller's table. The woman sitting at the table watched her for a moment. As Kira was blocking the sign, Adam turned his gaze to rest of the rickety card table the woman was sitting at. He was a bit startled to see the array of crystals, the deck of tarot cards, and other occult paraphernalia.

"Hello," the woman said, smiling at Kira. "Would you like a reading?"

Without warning Kira dove into the chair across from Elena Luna. "Yes. Yes, I would." She pulled out her wallet. "How much?"

"What kind of reading would you like?"

"Dream interpretation."

"Ten dollars, then."

Kira slapped the money down. "I had the freakiest dream this morning," she said, leaning forward earnestly, Adam apparently forgotten. "See, there's this guy. And I don't like him. At all. Well, I mean, he's one of my best friends, but I don't have feelings for him. But this morning—hey!"

Kira found herself shoved out of the chair, Adam taking her place. "Hi," Adam said to the startled Elena, digging a ten-dollar bill out of his wallet. "I had this dream, about eight years ago or so, and it's been bothering me for ages. See, I fell asleep in the library while watching a monster movie, and I think that had a lot to do with—hey!"

Kira had shoved him back out of the chair. "Wait your turn!" she growled, plopping back down.

"I've been waiting eight years! It'll only take a second!" Adam insisted pleadingly. He tried to push her back off, but she grabbed the seat and hung on tightly.

"I was here first!" Adam was able to get one of her hands free, and squeezed what little of himself that he could onto the chair. Kira was slowly shoved to the side.

"Well, I walked past the table before you did, and I came back to see what you were doing, so technically I was here first!" Kira turned sideways and braced her feet against the ground. Adam copied her and they began to shove each other with their backs.

"But I sat down first!"

"Please, Kira, it's really important!"

"No!"

Suddenly Kira went flying, sprawling on the dirt next to the chair. Her sudden disappearance took Adam by surprise, and he went flying over the edge to land on top of her.

There was a mad scramble to get back to the chair, complete with pushing, shoving and elbowing. Kira managed to dive under Adam's arm as he tried to block her, and sat down. Shooting him a triumphant look, she leaned towards Elena again and said, "As I was saying—hey!"

Adam had gotten behind her, grabbed her by the waist, picked her up and set her down next to the chair. Then he leap-frogged over the chair and hunkered down. "It'll only take a second," he said firmly, not willing to give up his chance to get the dream off his chest when it had been bugging him ever since the Zeo days.

Kira was not willing to give up so easily, however; her horror over dreaming about almost kissing Conner was pushing her quite hard. She put her hands against Adam's arm and shoved with all her might. Eventually, he was forced off, and she dove into the chair, but Adam hadn't been expecting her to claim the seat so soon and sat back down right on her lap. "OW! Let me up!" Kira shouted.

"Not until you agree to let me go fir—ah!" Thrusting her entire body upwards, she managed to send Adam flying. Adam yelped and Elena was forced to grab the card table and whisk it to the side to keep it from getting crushed. Glaring, Adam stomped back to the chair, lifted Kira up again, set her down in front of the chair and held her there while he sat.

Refusing to admit defeat, even though Elena Luna was looking quite put out by now, Kira plopped down on Adam's lap. Then she remembered that this wasn't as damaging as when he'd done it to her, because after all she weighed a hell of a lot less than he did. She glowered, twisted around and snapped, "Okay, let's settle this, right here, right now." With that, she held up her hands in the classic position to begin a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Adam nodded curtly and held his up too. Not breaking eye contact, they tapped their fists against their hands and then opened their fists. Kira chose Scissors… and Adam chose Paper.

"HA!"

"NO!"

"I win! I get to go first!"

"Fine," Adam ground out. The logical side of him was getting quite snippy, anyway, rudely informing his competitive side that if they stopped warring over who got to go first he might actually get to take a turn some time today.

Kira didn't bother standing up and telling him to move, as she was afraid he might refuse to honor the tradition of settling things by Rock-Paper-Scissors. Adam, likewise, didn't offer to move; that would be too much like admitting defeat. So Kira simply turned around to face Elena Luna as she straightened her card table, looking torn between amusement and annoyance.

"As I was saying," Kira began, "I had this dream that I was sitting in the lobby of the hotel we're staying at, and then this guy, Conner, who I like only as a friend, comes out of the elevator and I'm all excited. He runs to me, and I run to him, and he picks me up and swings me around like something off a cheesy romance movie. And I was actually happy about it." She shuddered. Adam shifted uncomfortably. "We said we missed each other, and I'm all, 'These nights apart are driving me crazy,' EW, and he's all, 'What can we do, since our chaperone's around,' EW, and I actually snuggled up to him, EW! and said that it was awful that Trent—my boyfriend—kept making all these advances! First of all, Trent doesn't make much in the way of advances, and if he did, it wouldn't exactly bother me!"

"Anything else?" Elena prompted. Grimacing at the subject matter, Adam decided to study a pretty rock off in the distance.

"He comforted me, told me that 'they'll all realize who you're meant for soon,' and then we started to kiss, only thankfully I snapped awake before we did. EW! It was horrible." Kira shivered again.

"Hmm," Elena said thoughtfully. "Do you remember any specific colors in the dream?" Elena smiled over her shoulder at Adam, who was blushing furiously by this point.

"Er… it looked mostly like a hotel lobby," Kira told her. "I was wearing yellow and he was wearing red. Mostly red; his Speedo looked kinda like it was made out of a pizza box, but it was mostly red." To her credit, Elena looked only momentarily startled by this revelation.

"A… pizza box?" Adam asked in spite of himself.

"I don't like thinking about it, and I'll thank you never to mention it ever again," Kira replied. "To anyone."

"Red is the color of sexuality and passion—" Elena said.

"EW," Kira growled.

"—and yellow is the color of awareness, telling you to examine your true self."

"Yeah, okay, but see, I really don't like Conner like that. Not even a little. I like Trent. My boyfriend. End of story."

She smiled. "Tell me, is your boyfriend very… forward?"

"How so?" Kira asked hesitantly, really wishing Adam was Not Here.

"Well, personally, I'd say your dream is telling you that you want more forwardness in your relationship. This boy, Conner, he swung you around and kissed you in front of the entire lobby and he admitted being frustrated by not being able to spend his nights with you. He told you that he disliked keeping things quiet as much as you did—in other words, he was telling you that he wanted to shout his love for you from the rooftops. I'd say his comment about 'realizing who you were meant for' is a subconscious reference that you want to be with Trent, but you want him to be less low-key about his feelings. You want others to know that you're With Trent, and you can't do that if Trent won't be a bit more open about your relationship." She watched Adam carefully over Kira's shoulder.

Kira breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "You think so?"

"That's my impression. Using this Conner boy was probably your subconscious's way of pointing out that your relationship seems too platonic, and that you don't want to go elsewhere to find what you're looking for in love—because this Conner boy is your friend, and you don't want to date him."

"That actually makes sense," Kira said slowly.

Elena smiled at her. "Perhaps you two should sit down for a nice long talk, after I hear his dream." She nodded at Adam.

"Thanks," Kira said warmly. "I don't know what it is about him that makes him so, you know, not advance-y. He's not that shy."

"Maybe it's the age difference?" Elena suggested tentatively.

"Age difference?" Kira repeated blankly.

"Is it my turn yet?" Adam asked loudly, not sure how much more of this he could take.

"Go ahead," Kira told him absently, still puzzling out the age difference thing, and wondering why Elena was giving her a decidedly knowing look.

"Aren't you going to leave?" Adam asked hopefully.

Kira shook her head. "You got to hear my utterly embarrassing dream, so I'm hearing yours. Blackmail doesn't work if we've both got information."

Adam sighed and regarded Elena. "Are you from this area?"

Elena shook her head. "North Carolina."

"Ah. Well, you see, it was during the time of the Zeo Power Rangers. I fell asleep during this old monster movie called The Bride of Hackensack, and I dreamed that I woke up to see this black cat on the table in front of me just as the movie was ending. I followed it out into the hall, where I saw Rita and Zedd, the evil villains who were chased off by the Machine Empire during the Zeo—"

"I give up," someone interrupted, and they all looked up to see Trent standing next to them, looking suspicious and confused. "What are you doing?"

"Oh. Hi!" Kira exclaimed, a little too loudly. "We're just… I wanted to get my dream interpreted, and now it's his turn…" She trailed off, acutely aware that explaining why she was sitting on Adam's lap would take some work.

Trent, however, seemed to sense that this was one of Those Moments, wherein the normal reactions were useless, because, while it couldn't be readily explained, there was definitely a good reason behind it. There was no logical explanation for his girlfriend sitting on Adam's lap and talking to a psychic, so there had to be other factors involved. Something else, something very weird, was at work. So he pushed down his first impulse to get jealous, looked Adam square in the eye, and said, "I was evil longer than just about anyone else. Even Dr. O."

"Heh," Adam said worriedly.

"Dr. O told me that no one else was evil as long as I was, at least not while in uniform, if you catch my drift," Trent continued pointedly. He glanced at Elena, but she simply looked uncertain, squinting at him as if trying to see something a little too far away to be clear. He frowned at the sign advertising her as a psychic, then smiled at Kira and said, "We're going on the Tilt-a-Whirl; we'll meet up with you later," and headed off to rejoin the group.

"Whew," Kira breathed, glad all Trent had needed to feel better about seeing their odd moment was to threaten Adam.

Adam swallowed, now twice as uncomfortable. He turned quickly back to Elena, and finished relating his dream.

Elena told him that his dream was probably just a manifestation of the film, since it followed the plot so closely, as dreams often played off the things that had happened during the day, especially if said event was still happening while he slept. She did say, however, that there was probably something buried in there about a strong sense of loyalty, a fear of failure and of losing his friends, and that things weren't as they seemed.

"Makes sense," Adam said when she was finished. He felt quite relieved; that had been one of the most vivid dreams he'd ever had, and he'd never quite forgotten it. "Thanks. I was never able to tell any of my friends about it."

"Sometimes, when you need someone to talk to, a perfect stranger is best," Elena told him. "Since you don't treasure a stranger's opinions of you, you don't concern yourself with their perceptions."

"True," Adam said, nodding.

"Well, we better catch up to the gang," Kira said, standing up. She'd quite enjoyed Adam's tale; not only was it amusing and interesting—especially when she tried to picture Dr. O as a vampire with a bad accent—but the way Adam told it had made her struggle not to laugh. He'd kept having to amend statements to explain that he'd dreamed he was a Power Ranger, rather than actually being a Power Ranger.

"Let me write up your receipts," Elena said. "What's your name?"

"Kira Ford."

Elena wrote it down on her receipt pad, tore it off, handed it to Kira and flipped the carbon copy out of the way so that she could make out Adam's. "What's your last name, Trent?"

It took Adam a second to realize she was talking to him. "What?"

"Your last name?"

"Park. But my first name's Adam, not Trent." Realization dawned on him quite suddenly. Kira sitting on his lap, the comment about "age difference" being a factor in his shyness… it had probably looked quite bad when he'd changed the subject after that comment, and looking uncomfortable during the retelling of Kira's dream about Conner probably hadn't helped, either.

"OH!" Elena exclaimed, smacking her forehead. "I'm sorry. I got the impression from Kira that her boyfriend was dark-haired, sweet and quiet, so I just assumed… I apologize."

"That's okay," Adam said faintly as Kira reddened. He accepted his receipt, and the two headed off towards the Tilt-a-Whirl.

"Well, that was awkward," Kira muttered. "She probably thought Trent was Conner! …Please don't ever tell him I said that."

"Sure thing. I don't look that much older than you, do I?" Adam asked nervously. "I mean, I'm only twenty-four."

"That's kind of seven years, right there," Kira told him consolingly. "Almost six. I'll be eighteen in a couple months."

"Ah. Well… ah." He sighed. "Okay, can we clear the air here? No more awkward?"

"Sure," Kira said quickly. "We're both Rangers, right?"

"Right. Starting over, as of now."

"Okay."

They stared at each other for a moment.

"Oh, look, it's an awkward pause," Adam said, shaking his head. They both laughed, then started walking again.

Kira fished for a subject, not wanting to endure yet another uncomfortable silence. "So why haven't you told any of your friends about that dream? It didn't seem too bad. They'd probably think it was funny."

Adam rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well… I didn't want it to get back to Kat."

"Because she was an evil witch in the dream?"

"Yes and no. See, when Kat first moved to Angel Grove, Rita put an evil spell on her that gave her the power to spy on us by turning into a white cat. Aisha and Kimberly adopted her and… I didn't want Kat to think I thought of her as an evil witch that turned into a cat and pretended to be our friend. I mean, I know it was a dream, but she'd probably feel lousy if she thought I felt that way even subconsciously. It was a long time after the evil spell thing and… well… I thought it might hurt Kat to hear about that part of the dream, and the team doesn't keep a lot of secrets from each other, so if I told one the others would probably hear it eventually. So I kept it to myself."

"Aw… that's sweet," Kira told him sympathetically.

He grinned. "Plus, you know, that part where Tommy tried to kiss my hand was completely horrible."

Kira threw back her head and laughed. "I can see how that would be creepy." She frowned and suddenly shuddered. "Ugh! You poor guy!"

Adam chuckled. "Thanks. Plus, oh, man, Billy 'creating' Tanya… he sounded not right on so many levels. Every time I saw him standing next to Tanya after that all I could do was cringe."

"I always thought that whole build-my-own-bride mad scientist thing was a freaky idea," Kira agreed.

They found Conner leaning against the railing around the Tilt-a-Whirl, looking kind of green. "Hey!" Kira called cheerfully, feeling much better towards Conner now that Elena had interpreted her dream.

"Hey," Conner replied, waving.

"Where is everyone? Still on the ride?"

"Yeah, they all wanted to go again, except Trent, Kim and Dr. O," Conner replied. "Trent's off in the bathroom; he said something about enclosed spinning rides creeping him out. And Kim and Dr. O haven't come back from putting Jake in the car."

"Why didn't you go again? You didn't throw up on that, too, did you?" Kira asked worriedly.

"No, but after the first time I rode it Trini wouldn't let me go again," Conner said sheepishly. "She went all Dr. O on me."

"Dr. O's been acting kinda weird today, did you notice?" Kira asked. "I mean, first he didn't want to go to the carnival, because it was where he had his first date with Kim, and then he was fine, and now he's wandering around buying her stuff. He's done a complete about-face."

"Yeah, but I figured he probably just needed a minute to get over the fries and all," Conner replied.

"But you said he didn't want to act flirty during that, and now… he seems really… interested," Kira said, for lack of a better term.

"It is kind of weird," Conner admitted. "I mean, back in the car, I could practically hear him thinking, 'I will not flirt with Kim.' Maybe he's actually trying to get her back."

"Kim and Tommy have always had a weird relationship," Adam said off-handedly, waving to Rocky as the ride threw him into Adam's line of sight. "Madly in love, and never once having an issue, despite trying to kill each other and evil spells and all sorts of things. But Tommy was usually too shy to make the first move; it was mostly Kim."

"Hmm," Kira said thoughtfully. "You think Trini actually got to him? Cuz he seems to be making a lot of… subtle gestures… today."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Adam said, smiling faintly.

"Hey, guys," Trent called, coming up behind them. He flicked a glance at Adam before focusing on Kira. "What did the psychic say?"

Kira paused for a moment to decide if she wanted to answer that, then said, quite plainly, "Kiss me."

"The psychic wanted you to kiss her?" Trent repeated in confusion.

"No, I want you to kiss me."

"Kira…" Trent began, embarrassed. Adam had the good grace to look away, but Conner was watching with interest.

"Kiss me now," Kira demanded.

"But…"

"I said now!"

"Okay," Trent said in bewilderment. He hastily stepped forward and leaned in, intent on making it a quick event, but Kira grabbed his shirt and hauled him closer. Before long, the two were making out quite happily against the railing of the Tilt-a-Whirl.

"Kira's gotten kinda needy lately," Conner commented. "OW! Ethan said she made out with Trent this morning after she knocked me unconscious. OW! OW!" he added, as both Trent and Kira whacked him one.

"Is she always that violent?" Adam asked. Conner looked at him questioningly. "We got into a bit of a scuffle over the chair at the psychic's table. I might have a few bruises."

"That's Kira for you. OW! See?"

Adam nodded. "Tanya does it too. Not as bad as Aisha, but still. Guess it's just a Yellow thing. OW!" Adam rubbed his arm ruefully. Apparently Kira was now comfortable enough with him to smack him if she felt it was warranted. Rangers tended adjust faster to changes in a situation. All the ludicrous monsters will do that to you.

"What's going on?" Tommy called as he followed an irritated Kimberly over to the group. Adam fought off a grin at the sight of them. Tommy was taking care to invade Kimberly's personal space, staying close to her. Kimberly looked flustered, and Adam was pretty sure she'd closed a few of the buttons on her shirt.

"Hey," Conner said. "Where you been? We didn't park that far away."

Tommy smiled. "Around." Kimberly muttered darkly about something to do with hiding corpses. "What have you been up to?" he continued casually.

"Kira and I saw a psychic," Adam said. "We both wanted to get some dream—ow! Or maybe I'm not supposed to tell you about that."

Tommy shrugged. "Feeling better, Conner? Or do you need another Coke?"

"Don't you dare go buy another drink," Kimberly hissed dangerously.

"Would you prefer I get some fries?" Tommy replied calmly.

Kimberly's hands twitched into a classic throttle position. Tommy decided to let it go and turned to Kira and Trent. "Much as I hate to stand in the way of passion," Tommy said with a mocking glance at Kimberly, "Anton's already tried to kill me a few too many times." Tommy reached out, grabbed the back of Trent's shirt, and pulled him back, startling both Kira and Trent. "There are children at this carnival." He shot Kimberly another teasing look. Adam, sensing tension like radar detecting incoming nuclear missiles, stepped forward, blocking Kimberly from Tommy's view. "Do that somewhere where I can't see you, okay?" Tommy added to Kira and Trent.

"Like the Ferris wheel," Conner teased, dancing out of the path of Kira's swinging arm. "Or the chairlift. Or—"

"You know," Tommy interrupted suddenly, "I think I know where we should head next."

"Where's that?" Adam asked suspiciously. He could feel Kimberly glaring through him at Tommy, and he was starting to worry.

"You'll see. Let's wait for the guys to get off the ride."

The rest of the group exited the Tilt-a-Whirl fairly soon and walked over—well, some of them walked over, and the others staggered. Anna and Ethan were clutching each other for support.

"Kimberly actually gave up Jake?" Jason asked. She nodded. "Good. It's nice to have a belt again. What are we up to now?"

"Much as I hate to leave, I kinda need to take off," Anna said. "I promised my sister I'd help her go pick up her car from the mechanic today; I'm supposed to be there at three, so I'm already cutting it close. I should be back fairly soon, though; are you guys planning to be here for a while?"

"All day," Tommy replied. He dug in his pocket for a scrap of paper. "Anybody got a pen?"

Anna handed him one and he scrawled down his phone number. "Give me a call when you get back," he told her. "We'll meet up."

"Definitely," she said.

"See you later," Ethan said.

She grinned happily at him before leaving, still a little off-balance from the Tilt-a-Whirl. Tommy watched her go, reflecting on her advice about Kimberly. Though Jason had been the catalyst, Anna had done him a world of good, both at the age of eight and the age of eighteen.

"Well," Tommy said, turning back to his friends, "there's another ride I wanted to go on. Let's go."

Without waiting for an answer, Tommy set off; the others shrugged and followed. Conner, who was now rather bruised from Kira—and Trent, to a lesser degree—decided to heckle Ethan about Anna, while Kimberly took advantage of Adam's sympathy to vent a little. Only Jason paid any attention to where Tommy was going… so everyone else was surprised when Tommy stopped in front of a large pink and white structure.

"Check it out, guys!" Tommy said cheerfully even as Trini, Kimberly, Zack and Billy's faces clouded with horror.

"The Tunnel of Loe?" Conner said, confused.

"I think that's supposed to say 'love,'" Ethan said, rolling his eyes. "There's a big gap where the V might've fallen off."

"Remember this old thing?" Tommy asked with a wicked grin. "Ah, good times."

"Maybe for you," Trini said sourly. "You didn't get your leg cut open or fall into the water or get kicked out of the carnival."

"Aw, come on," Tommy said. "What are the chances of that happening again?"

"You just had to say that, didn't you?" Zack grumbled. "You know that's the ultimate jinx!"

"You actually want to go on that thing?" Trini asked Tommy incredulously. Given their history with the Tunnel of Love, Trini had assumed that no amount of evil planning would get Tommy back on it. "Again?"

"I'm afraid I feel no inclination to relive the previous catastrophe," Billy said apologetically. "Especially not with Zack."

"Hey!" Zack complained. "You pushed me!"

"So ride with someone else," Tommy suggested, ignoring Zack.

"I'm game," Trent said, slipping his hand into Kira's. After the hotel room this morning, and the Ferris wheel, and the chairlift and Kira following the psychic's advice by the Tilt-a-Whirl, a Tunnel of Love ride sounded like a dream come true. If it weren't for the fact that the saner half of him knew it was completely ridiculous, he'd be saying something really triumphant to Adam and Rocky right about now, or at least declaring himself The Man.

As if picking up on Trent's idea, Jason slid his arm around Trini's waist. "Come on. If Zack falls in, I won't try to rescue him. We'll be fine."

"I guess I could go for a smooth ride after the Tilt-a-Whirl," Ethan said, shrugging.

"There's no point in going to a carnival if you don't ride everything," Rocky added. "Come on, gang. I'll ride with Billy, I don't care."

"Come on, Trini," Jason said, giving her a suggestive grin.

Her resolve to stay away from this particular ride began to melt; if Tommy was eager to get back on it, Trini could only hope all her plans were truly starting to work. "Only if Adam goes with Zack," Trini said.

"Why me?" Adam asked.

"Because he needs someone sensible in the boat with him. I'm not getting my leg cut open again. Those security guards were just rude."

"What, Billy isn't sensible?" Adam demanded.

Trini shrugged. "We all have our moments."

"Come on, Adam," Zack said, putting his elbow up on Adam's shoulder. "Us Black dudes gotta stick together."

"Fine," Adam said with a sigh.

Kimberly's eyes widened as she realized exactly how the gang was pairing off. That left her, Conner, Ethan, and Tommy, and there was no way she was getting in the Tunnel of Love with Tommy, especially considering what had happened last time.

Kimberly looked at Conner, but he caught on to her thoughts just a moment too soon and violently threw his arm around Ethan's shoulders. "Let's make some magic, baby," Conner said, deepening his voice and smiling mock-seductively. He waggled his eyebrows at Ethan.

Ethan frowned incredulously, started to respond, and then looked at Kimberly and Tommy in realization. "Sure," he said, pitching his voice high and breathy. "I'd love to, you big strong ma-a-a-an."

Kimberly wanted to hit him. Preferably both of them. She was not going. Oh, no.

"Guess it's you and me, Kim," Tommy said lightly, though the smirk on his face seemed to say he'd been planning it all along.

Kimberly narrowed her eyes at him. Was this payback for the fry thing? What exactly was his deal? He wasn't the best guy for these sorts of games; in fact, the only person worse at it was probably Billy, and Billy had come a long way since hooking up with Cestria. Hell, Tommy had nearly killed them all on the way here just because she was being a little… flirtatious. Sure, Tommy had been holding his own in the parking lot, and he'd been bugging her all day… but where had he gotten the guts, and what was his motive?

Kimberly knew she should refuse to ride—but that would leave her outside, away from the group, and she had a feeling Tommy would "offer" to stay with her rather than ride alone. Besides which, Kimberly had had enough. She was tired of messing around. She needed to smack him down, and now seemed like a perfect time.

Well, she thought, two can play at this game… but only one can win.

"Great," Kimberly returned, in a tone that made it obvious that she was challenging him. "This was probably the best ride in the park."

Tommy didn't back down; he merely smiled and headed towards the line, the others following. As Trini went to walk past her, Kimberly grabbed her arm.

"What did you do to Tommy?" Kimberly hissed, glaring at her.

Trini blinked, looking rather startled. "Nothing. What do you mean?"

"He's acting different."

"Well, that's a human being for you. They just keep you guessing."

"Trini, so help me, if you've used your tricky psychology bull to alter him in any way—"

"Kim, what are you talking about?" Trini said impatiently. "I haven't even said three words to Tommy today, let alone captivated him with my secret death ray hypno-vision. What's gotten into you? Tommy is Tommy. Just because he did something weird doesn't mean I brainwashed him. Get a grip."

Trini shook off Kimberly's grip and sauntered over to Jason, taking his hand. Kimberly sighed heavily, remembering their first disaster on this particular ride.

"This should be fun," Jason said happily as Kimberly reluctantly joined Tommy, who was standing between Conner and Ethan and Jason and Trini.

Kimberly glared at him. "Has it not occurred to you that we've had fun on every ride today, except the ones we went on ten years ago? The Scrambler, getting stuck on the Ferris wheel, us getting stuck in the corner of the bumper car arena, Jake almost falling off the chairlift… are you really expecting to have fun on this one?"

Jason appeared startled. "What are you talking about? I've been having a great time. Especially on all of those."

Kimberly sighed heavily, wondering just how badly the Tunnel of Love would go.

End Notes: I still have some piecing together to do on the next chapter, but hopefully it'll be up pretty fast. Sorry for the cliffie.